I am learning to knit with circular needles. It is a simple cowl pattern with yarn overs and psso's . I marked my beginning spot with a marker. My problem comes when I put my knitting down and then resume knitting again. I pay attention to my marker, making sure it is facing away from me, on the knitted side of the cowl. (the way I marked it.) , but on 2 occasions now, I think I have somehow ended up knitting in the wrong direction. I'm not quite sure how this is happening. Both times, I ended up taking out at least 4 or 5 rows and starting over. Once the same thing happened. I'm trying to figure out how to remedy this problem. Any suggestions?

The working yarn will always be on the right needle. That's the best way I know of to be sure you have it going the right way. Having a marker of some sort on the front is helpful also. A coiless pin or piece of yarn in a contrasting color that is easy to see works.

__________________~ GG
Happiness is catching that dropped stitch while it's still fixable..

The marker shouldn't move, it stays in one place at the beginning of the round. If you move it to the middle of the round, you may get confused on when you go to the next one. Keep it in place, stop a stitch or two before or after it if you need to, but when you pick up the knitting the working yarn is always on the right needle, so you just work the next stitch on the left needle.